What Am I Doing Now?

 At this very moment, I’m sitting down, typing, eating peanuts and dark chocolate chips, listening to my 19 day old baby snuffle in her sleep, hoping my 17 month old doesn’t wake up, and trying to figure out what else I want to share with you on this occasion. 

Hello my friend, I’m glad you’ve stopped by.

I shared where I have been the last few years, now to answer what am I doing now?

I’m afraid to say that my life is not very riveting. But over the last year a half, I’ve grown to like it. And I wouldn’t change a thing. Occupationally (you know, the blank line given on any important paperwork grown ups are forced to encounter), I am a homemaker. Experientially, I am a wife, a mama (I like the way that sounds better than “Mother”), a housekeeper, a cook, a laundress, a gardener, a part-time seamstress, wannabe herbalist, and an aspiring minimalist (aka, I’m tired of seeing all the things stacked around my house, all the toys I have to clean up, and all the clothes I can’t wear due to continually changing life circumstances). 

For the first thing, a wife. My husband, D, and I have been happily married for a little over two years now. Not wanting to droll on about D for too long (that might be awkward for you), I’ll try to keep it brief. He’s absolutely wonderful. He is so patient and gentle, towards me and our girls. But he’s also not afraid to point out when I need an attitude adjustment (which I really appreciate about him). I am learning what it means to be his wife. I am learning what it looks like for me to love him well. I am learning what it means to respect him and how to be his partner. 

When we were first married, I (obsessed with wanting to be the perfect wife for fear of loosing his affection, a deep rooted problem of mine) made the mistake of reading some marriage books and then applying that author’s relationship ins and outs to mine. Well, let’s just say that my husband is not like the author’s husband. But I’m getting a little off track here, let’s move on.

A mama. There is soooo much I could say about this. But for now, the basics. I have two girls, E and A. E is 17 months old and becoming more and more of a toddler by the day. And A is 19 days old. As Pinterest so pointedly displays for me, I have two under two. Two children under the age of two (yeah, yeah I’m sure you got that). Pinterest is also quite sure that I need a survival guide for this. But I haven’t found it to be terribly difficult yet. Granted, I’m only a few weeks in. But for me, the transition from working full time to staying home full time with a helpless tiny human who makes a lot of strange facial expressions, was very hard. Very hard. I’m sure we’ll chat about that in more detail later. As for right now, I still want to do creative things and have ideas and projects I want to work on. I may not have time to do any of it, but I have the drive and mental space for it. And that alone is a huge positive indicator of my wellbeing (who knew wellbeing was one word?). 

A housekeeper. What more is there to say? I clean stuff, all the time. 

A cook. I cook at least three meals a day. I guess I cook mostly “from scratch”. Never been a big fan of freezer meals.

A laundress. Laundry. Yep, I’ve got little kids. There is lots of laundry.

A gardener. Growing up, my mum planted a huge garden every spring. All through summer and fall I’d help water and weed it and then process all the fruits and veg that grew. Once I no longer had to help with a garden, I actually wanted to garden! Thus a couple blueberry bushes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a volunteer acorn squash and lemon cucumber have found themselves happily planted in our yard.

A part-time seamstress. In the past I’ve done elaborate costumes, repurposed thrifted clothes, sewn from patterns several dresses, and altered wedding dresses. These days I’ve made black out curtains, baby blankets, and Snuggle Me (a fancy “infant lounger” given to us when we had our first) covers. However, I plan on making lots more things, so stay tuned.

A wanna-be herbalist. This one is quite new for me. I’ve used essential oils for a while now (especially for cleaning and sicknesses), but I’m dipping my toes in learning about drying and using herbs and flowers for a couple other purposes. Prepping for a natural home birth and strategizing for second postpartum recovery started me on this trail. Now I plan on having a planter in our yard filled with lavender and calendula (once we get the rest of our house finished that is).

Lastly, an aspiring minimalist. There really is something mentally taxing about having your living space be cluttered up by two weeks worth of mail, six things that need to be stored away, clothes that your kids outgrew, that box of beans you’ve been meaning to give to your relative, and the eighteen pairs of shoes stacked up by the door. You get the idea. I’m not so extreme that we eat off one place setting per person, but I do make sure it’s easy to put away all our cups without having to arrange them like Tetris. It really has been freeing to shed extra stuff that we don’t use, or to be okay with tossing actually broken items into the garbage bin. Another really freeing area has been the toys we keep in our house. If I don’t like cleaning it up, we don’t keep it. Same goes for kids books and clothes. Also, we live in a 900 square foot house. I have to be choosy about what stays, otherwise we’d be overrun. 

I think that’ll do. Now you have a far greater understanding of my life at present. 

Hope to see you around.